Chapter 10

Sam sat in the church. It had stained glass windows. The moon was full and the light was pretty enough. Alice was in labor. There was no way the angel wasn't showing up tonight. Sam got the text that Alice was okay and the baby was fine but that Jeff needed a stiff drink. A minute later, he heard the doors bang open. A man walked to the front of the church and stood for an hour, basking in the light through the stained glass windows. If Sam turned his head just right, he could see the shadow of the massive wings.

He turned and Sam saw his brother's face when he was 30 or so. Sam cleared his throat. "Who are you?"

"You're the first to ask." The Angel spread his wings. "I take it you know this face."

"My big brother… looking a decade or two younger than when I last saw him… you know, a few days before he died."

"Your brother made a deal with a demon for the life of his daughter. I killed that demon before the deal was made… final. I inherited the rewards of that debt. His soul."

"And who are you?"

"One of God's sons."

"Why do you look like him?"

"He was a righteous man. Men cannot see an angel without their eyes bleeding out. When his body was burned, I took his image and his spirit and I carry it with me. He teaches me what I could not learn in millennia."

"What's that?"

"How to love man."

"Why do you come to the churches?"

"Men need hope." The Angel jumped and landed perched on the pew in front of Sam. "The oddest things give men hope. Seeing an angel. Hearing that someone has seen an angel. If only they all knew how much angels hated men."

"Why give them hope?"

"It's my penance." The angel frowned with Dean's face. "I was ready to smite. I was ready to cleanse the Earth. My Father's Son told me to look again. I refused. I have been denied the full light of God's glory."

"Like Lucifer."

"Not like Lucifer. He was denied any of God's light."

"Michael."

"I have sinned against my Father with the pride of my brother. Your brother lets me repent."

"Why do you save her?"

"He's become part of me. He's strong enough to save her whether I let him or not. He gave his eternal soul so that she would have a life. His eternal soul rests inside me. Vulgar little thing that it is. The effects last a while. I always did like churches with stained glass windows. They let me feel the reflection of His love. I take what I can get."

"How long?"

"Millenia."

"Well, tell Dean that he has a grandson. I can't imagine that she'll name him anything other than Dean."

"She's strong. Fearless. Full of Hope."

"You appeared to the priest more than once."

"He was looking." The angel shrugged and the wings shifted with a sound like thunder. "He'd make a better hunter anyway."

Sam sat and watched the Angel fade away. The effects of Dean hovering over his daughter with so much love had dissipated and the angel would have to wait until the next time to have his few minutes in the moonlight.

The END